Brazil: Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde
Nossos Corpos por nós Mesmas
(Translation: Our Bodies for Ourselves)
Publication Language: Portuguese
Publication Date: 2023
Our Bodies, Ourselves Project
In 2019, several organizations in Brazil came together to translate and adapt "Our Bodies, Ourselves" into Portuguese. The group, which included members of the Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde (CFSS), participants in the Research Group on Translation Studies at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and students and members of the translation team at Universidade de Campinas (Unicamp), translated the 2011 U.S edition and adapted it to meet the needs of women in Brazil.
In the beginning, the group planned to publish the entire book in three volumes. The first volume, which covers anatomy and sexuality, body image, birth control, safer sex, abortion, violence against women, and environmental and occupational health, was published in July 2021. After the first volume was published, the group decided to publish a single book rather than three individual volumes.
The entire project involved more than 100 people, including multiple teams of both professional and student translators, and took three and a half years to complete. The final book was published in January 2023.
Project Coordinators
The general coordinator of the project was Raquel Pereira, who organized the project from its beginning, with the ongoing support of Erica Lima and Janine Pimentel.
Translation Teams
Celebrating the publication of “Nossos Corpos por Nós Mesmas”
In September 2021, the Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde and Our Bodies Ourselves held a webinar to celebrate the publication of the first volume of “Nossos Corpos por Nós Mesmas” and to honor the generations of Brazilian and U.S. feminists who have long fought for health justice and equality.
The event was powerful and moving, as one woman after another shared their stories on how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” and “Nossos Corpos” have affected their lives, how and why they became involved in the movement for reproductive justice, and what it has meant (and means) to work and learn from feminists in different countries.
In preparation for the event, several of the organizers created a wonderful, celebratory 17-minute video of stories and greetings from the Brazilian team:
You can also watch a recording of the full one-and-a-half-hour webinar. The recording is partly in Portuguese and partly in English, with subtitles for the other language. (To see the subtitles, click “cc” at the bottom of the video.)
In 2023 project coordinator Raquel Periera "gave birth" to both the book and her baby! Raquel and baby Alice made the official delivery of the book to Our Bodies Ourselves founders Norma Swenson and Judy Norsigian.
Online Content
The entire book is available here.
The prefaces for the new book are also available online, in both Portuguese and English. Because many people from different places worked on the project, the book has four unique prefaces, so that each group could share their experiences and perceptions. Read the prefaces in both Portuguese and English.
The group has also translated a book of prefaces from different global adaptations of "Our Bodies, Ourselves." Read Our Bodies, Ourselves Transformado Mundialmente: Uma Coleção de Prefácios com traduçoes culturalmente adaptadas de 'Our Bodies, Ourselves.' You can also read a blog post, written in Spanish by 2019 Unicamp visiting professor Jose Yuste-Frías, about the booklet translation.
How to Obtain a Print Copy
For information about how to get a print copy of the book, contact the Coletivo at https://coletivofeminista.org.br/
Community Action & Activism
The group collaborated to create accessible, evidence-based information on women's health and sexuality, especially for those in neglected and stigmatized communities. They hope their work will encourage and promote discussion among those with different areas of knowledge, including students, physicians, researchers, midwives, and psychologists.
This is a particularly important issue in Brazil, which, despite good and free public assistance for family planning and contraceptives, has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in place (both doctors/medical staff and women can face jail time for abortion) and huge amount of obstetrician violence, in the form of mandatory cesarean sections and gynecological abuse.
Contacts
Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saúde
Website: https://coletivofeminista.org.br/
Email: [email protected]
Raquel Pereira
Email: [email protected]